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After Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials recently admitted that they have engaged in extensive illegal targeting of government watchdog organizations for extra scrutiny and harassment, Libertarian Party Executive Director Carla Howell called for abolishing the IRS, ending the federal income tax, and slashing government spending in an interview with PressTV.

Howell said that the use of the IRS as a political attack tool, which has been going onnearly as long as the agency has existed, jeopardizes the integrity of U.S. elections. The presidential administrations that have been caught using the IRS to target political enemies include those of Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.

"What should the consequences be?" Howell asked. "We should get rid of the IRS and the income tax altogether, and cut government spending. We don't need an income tax, and we certainly don't need the IRS."

Howell pointed out that the Libertarian Party is the only political party willing to dismantle the IRS altogether and slash the size of government.

"The Libertarian Party is running candidates to dramatically downsize the federal government, which we can cut by perhaps 50 percent, or even 90 percent, and Americans will be better for it," Howell said. "Which means we can end deficit spending, stop inflation, and end the personal income tax, the corporate income tax, the death tax, and all federal payroll taxes. And there will be no need for the IRS."

Eliminating the IRS would not only eliminate its capacity for political corruption, Howell said, it would also bring tremendous economic growth and prosperity to American citizens.

"We will make living in America and doing business in America much better because there will be no more IRS to target political enemies," Howell said. "Individuals, businesses, and political organizations will all be safe from government interrogation. It will dramatically increase the wealth of the private sector and inspire hundreds of billions of dollars in investment in small businesses and American jobs."

Another benefit of abolishing the IRS is that it would become far more difficult to fund massive interventionist military presence and warfare around the globe.

"It will also require our gargantuan military budgets to go down, which currently encourage overseas meddling and war," Howell said. "We get rid of the IRS, we get rid of the income tax, we dramatically downsize federal spending and taxation, and America and the world will be better for it."

The Libertarian Party is America's third largest political party, founded in 1971. Our vision is for a world in which all individuals can freely exercise the natural right of sole dominion over their own lives, liberty and property by building a political party that elects Libertarians to public office, and moving public policy in a libertarian direction.